Werk #19919: Metric backend: Support for additional consolidation functions in custom queries
| Component | Telemetry | ||
| Title | Metric backend: Support for additional consolidation functions in custom queries | ||
| Date | Aug 5, 2026 | ||
| Level | Prominent Change | ||
| Class | New Feature | ||
| Compatibility | Incompatible - Manual interaction might be required | ||
| Checkmk versions & editions |
|
The special agent rule Metric backend (custom query) now lets you pick which consolidation function a query runs, and the choice is stored with the rule. All functions known from the graph designer are available:
- Gauge: last/max/avg/min
- Sum: rate, delta and the raw value
- Histogram: quantile, delta and rate of count and sum, fractions of observations below/between thresholds, the cumulative sum, and preserved histograms (merged across a group of series before the quantile or fraction is computed).
Queries can also aggregate across series, mirroring the graph designer's Group by: scalar results can be grouped with avg/count/max/min/sum, and preserved histograms are merged per group. The agent then creates one service per group instead of one per series. A grouped service's name template resolves against the group's key/value pairs. Attribute macros for any other keys are not replaced and stay as literal text in the service name. No metric unit is shown for grouped results, since a group has no single series to take it from.
A grouping can chain further then steps, each aggregating the previous
step's groups with avg/count/max/min/sum over a subset of its keys. Grouping
by no keys at all (directly or in a then step) combines everything into
one series. Such a group has no key/value pairs. $SERIES_ID$ resolves to
empty text and attribute macros are not replaced, so use a template that
works without them, such as $METRIC_NAME$.
Incompatibility
Previously the agent picked the consolidation from the metric's type (gauge: last value, sum: rate, histogram: quantile). Updating to this version sets every existing query to the gauge function Last recorded value.
Queries on gauge metrics keep working unchanged. Queries on sum or histogram
metrics will now encounter no data and need to be migrated manually. The
services will enter an UNKNOWN state with Item not found in monitoring data.
The affected services can be restored by editing the rule and picking
a matching consolidation function for sums or histograms. To restore the
old behavior select Rate consolidation for sums and Quantile
consolidation for histograms.